23andMe’s DNA results have come in, and we have some bad news: The company is failing.

The beleaguered genetic testing kit company filed for bankruptcy last night, and CEO and founder Anne Wojcicki resigned. The news didn’t exactly come as a shock to those following 23andMe’s journey from tech unicorn with a market cap of $43.5 billion when it went public to a struggling firm worth less than $25 million.

“We have had many successes but I equally take accountability for the challenges we have today,” Wojcicki wrote in a post on X addressing the bankruptcy.

Championship DNA

Founded back in 2006, 23andMe shot to mainstream popularity with its home testing kits that revealed people’s genetic history. But ever since going public via SPAC in 2021, 23andMe’s stock has fallen as it struggled to nail down a profitable business model. SPACs, or special-purpose acquisition companies, are shell companies that go public and then acquire or merge with private firms, giving them a shortcut to public markets without all the paperwork of a traditional IPO.

Things went from bad to worse for the company last September, when the entire board resigned all at once as Wojcicki tried to Uno reverse its SPAC and take 23andMe private.

23andMe’s flameout is a cautionary tale about going public before having a solid business plan. But 23andMe isn’t the only company that could tell you that sad story: After a SPAC heyday shortly following the pandemic, many companies that utilized SPACs to hit the market have flamed out hard.

You may recognize legendary corporate meltdowns like WeWork, Virgin Orbit, Nikola, Faraday, and Lordstown Motors—all of which went public via SPAC. And the struggling ex-SPAC club is not an exclusive one to join: Of the 450 former SPACs that went public post-pandemic and are still trading today, nearly half have erased over 90% of their value, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

23 problems but a SPAC ain’t one

But if there’s one thing that Wall Street loves even more than inhaling a Sweetgreen salad in a soulless corporate tower, it’s giving dubious ventures a second chance.

SPACs are the latest example: Even after the epic failure of many of the companies that marked the first SPAC boom, the method of going public is back in vogue.

We’re about to hit a four-year high in SPAC deals, according to data from Renaissance Capital. And some of the biggest “SPAC Kings,” like current Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, raised billions last year to get back into the SPAC game—even after their previous SPAC deals lost nearly all of their value.

So what’s resuscitating SPACs? AI hype, of course. Maybe tech firms considering using a SPAC to go public can ask ChatGPT to remind them what happened to WeWork.—LB

🟢 What’s up

• Big deck energy: Azek, which manufactures outdoor building materials like decks and pergolas, soared 17.32% on news that it will be acquired by Australian cement-maker James Hardie for $8.75 billion. James Hardie shares fell 17.18%.
• Tesla popped 11.93% after the FBI unveiled its new Tesla threats taskforce.
• But Chinese EV competitor BYD also had a good day after its 2024 revenue outpaced Tesla’s. Shares rose 5.42%.
• Pinterest caught an upgrade from Guggenheim analysts, who think the social media stock’s recent pullback means the price is right. Shares climbed 5%
• ViaSat also rose 14.42% thanks to an analyst upgrade from the folks at Deutsche Bank, who think the satellite maker has plenty of opportunities to monetize.
• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both climbed on reports that the Trump administration is mulling taking the two housing giants private. Shares of Fannie rose 9.70%, and Freddie gained 9.01%.
• Crypto companies bounced back thanks to bitcoin’s climb over the weekend. MicroStrategy (we know it’s just “Strategy” now but c’mon) rose 10.43%, RobinHood Markets climbed 9.02%, and Coinbase gained 6.94%.

What’s down

• Bayer tumbled 7.14% after a Georgia jury decided that the Monsanto parent company’s weedkiller Roundup does have harmful side effects, awarding $2.1 billion to the plaintiffs.
• Lockheed Martin fell another 1.14% a few days after rival Boeing won a pivotal contract from the US government. Analyst downgrades from Bank of America and Melius Research added pressure to the selloff. Meanwhile, Boeing shares rose 1.57%.
• Super Micro Computer lost 1.02% after Goldman Sachs analysts downgraded the stock, citing growing competition in the AI server market.

Forget the Big Mac Index, the Lipstick Index, or even the Men’s Underwear Index: With investors searching for any signal in all the economic noise caused by tariff uncertainty, they’re turning to some unique indicators to figure out what’s going to happen next.

According to the New York Times, Americans are branding a wide variety of news items as recession indicators, including

• A new Will Smith album
• A fourth season of Ted Lasso
• People enjoying spring break vacations in Houston, TX

It’s easy to slap #RecessionIndicator on any piece of news you see and call it a day, particularly Buy Now Pay Later plans for takeout (truly a sign of end times), but the data hasn’t revealed economic malaise just yet. So far, fears of a downturn are all about sentiment, not fundamentals—but when everything becomes a recession indicator, how far behind can the actual recession be?

Amid a tumultuous equity market, elevated interest rates, and an oncoming economic slowdown, it might not seem like the best time for private companies to hit the world of public markets.

But the IPO (aka initial public offering) pipeline is finally showing signs of life.

Zooming back in time all the way to 2021, there was a steady stream of startups deciding to make the lucrative jump into the stock market (see our 23andMe story above). But after the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates in 2022, many tech unicorns decided to stay private for longer. For the past few years, everyone on Wall Street has been trying to predict when exactly IPOs would return to the glory days.

Now that inflation has decelerated and interest rates are down (slightly), tech names are lining up to offer their shares to you, everyday investors: Ticketing company StubHub filed to go public last week, while AI infrastructure firm CoreWeave is expected to make its public market debut any day now. Health company Hinge Health and online buy now pay later giant Klarna also filed to go public in the past few weeks.

The pickup in IPOs coincides with a broader resurgence in all kinds of dealmaking. Last week, Google announced it was buying cybersecurity giant Wiz for a staggering $32 billion—its biggest acquisition ever—indicating that mergers and acquisitions could be picking up as well.

The art of the deal?

Wall Street was hoping that President Trump’s business-friendly policies would provide a better environment for companies to make their public market debut.

But that logic hasn’t exactly panned out. Fears that Trump’s tariffs will derail the economy and destroy normalized trade relations has rocked the stock market, which is why many companies are deciding to stay private until the chaos blows over.

But as Stubhub, CoreWeave, and Klarna show, you can’t kick the can down the road forever.—LB

• Tylenol and Listerine may finally break up: Parent company Kenvue is under fire from activist investor TOMS Capital Investment Management to seek a sale or separate.
• South Korean retail investors are buying US equities at record rates.
• Another day, another AI startup: Jack Ma-backed Ant Group uses Chinese semiconductors to cut costs by 20% compared to the competition.
• Hyundai has struggled lately, but that’s not stopping the car company from making a $20 billion investment into the US economy.
• US manufacturing is in trouble once again, as factory activity fell back into contraction territory.
• This is a fun read: How exactly does someone parlay $1 billion in crypto into building the world’s first commercial space station?

Tomorrow, we’ll get a look at the real estate market with the Case-Shiller home price index, plus we’ll check in on consumers with the Conference Board’s consumer confidence report.

As for earnings, we’ll hear from one of the most boring companies in history, and one of the most exciting companies in recent memory.

Before the open

• McCormick & Co. doesn’t expect big revenue or profit growth in 2025, which is understandable: Once you’ve got a full spice rack at home, there’s not much reason to splurge on more McCormick products. But that also means the headwinds that the rest of the consumer staples industry faces in the coming months won’t hurt McCormick as badly as they will others—after all, everyone needs to buy salt and pepper. A dividend yield of 2.5% gives investors a good reason to hang on to shares for the long term as the company endures a consumer spending slowdown. Consensus: $0.69 EPS, $1.63 billion in revenue.

After the close

• GameStop’s latest stock surge has less to do with the company itself and more to do with rumors that it will begin buying bitcoin. While shareholders will want to hear more about that tomorrow, they’ll also want to hear what the plan is for tariffs. The gaming industry relies heavily on cheap electronics manufactured overseas, and game studios are already talking about shifting away from physical copies to digital sales—which will completely cut GameStop out, and could deal a serious blow to the bottom line. Consensus: $0.08 EPS, $1.48 billion in revenue.